CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday spurned proposals by County Executive Armond Budish to offer perks such as bonuses, performance pay and overtime to lure and keep salaried employees.

Those perks and others, including relocation pay and additional vacation days will likely be amended or removed before County Council signs off on a proposed new employee handbook.

At a committee hearing Tuesday, council members angrily noted that the administration's latest draft of handbook still contained the controversial sections after they had submitted their objections.

"I am a little surprised [our concerns] have had no impact at all in what was introduced to us," Council President Dan Brady told Chief Talent Officer Douglas Dykes. "What was introduced to us is never going to be passed by this council. It will be amended as we see fit. We are looking forward to working with you. But at this point, what you need to understand is that it is on our plate now."

The Budish administration has been working on a new handbook after the county's internal auditor concluded last year that Budish did not have the discretion under the current handbook to set policies for administrative hires.

County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley ruled last November that Budish's administration violated the county charter by paying $1.7 million in overtime to salaried employees and providing special compensation to certain employees.

Budish and his staff, however, included all his proposals in the draft handbook.

Dykes gave council an overview of the handbook but highlighted four areas that he said would likely draw scrutiny.

They are:

Paying salaried employees their hourly rate each hour beyond 40 hours. It is not overtime, he said. He said some employees don't want to work beyond 40 hours unless they are getting paid.

Allowing salaried employees to attest they worked 80 hours over two weeks instead of submitting hourly time cards.

Offering executive and special compensation to attract and retain employees.

Allowing telecommuting.

Dykes maintained the actions are needed because the county is facing the "perfect storm" while trying to recruit and retain talented employees.

He said the factors are:

22.3 percent of the county's workforce is eligible to retire in three years.

Low county and state unemployment.

The need to have a more diverse workforce.

The current national political environment, which "gives government work a negative eye."

The ability of job seekers to find jobs that pay more in the private sector.

"By adding a little bit more - a signing bonus, extra vacation, more exchange time - you'd be surprised how many people who are making more money will consider coming to this organization," Dykes said. "This is really about change, about preparing this organization for the future and how do we make ourselves even more competitive as it relates to recruiting and retaining people."

Here's how some council members responded.

Michael Gallagher: "If you give perks to chiefs and not the lower-level employees, aren't we creating a problem with the overall culture in Cuyahoga County as being a destination place to work? You and I and all the people are working for the people of Cuyahoga County. That we can't compete with the outside world is a fact of life.

"I don't buy the argument we can't compete out there for good talent. The hook we have is PERS and everything else that government employees make is just about better than anything the private sector can afford. Why we get people to get less money to work 30 years is because they get compensated at the back end."

Dale Miller: "The understanding I have is that the work that salaried employees do is not so much how many hours they work but is whether they get the work done. They are hired at a particular salary to get a particular job done. If it takes you extra hours to get it done, you put in those extra hours. It seems like we are getting away from that. If you pay people for additional hours, then are they motivated to get the job done quickly?"

Jack Schron: "I am having a hard time grabbing my hands around flexible time above 40 hours. You would run into morale problems.

"If you have been paying additional compensation for 10 years [which led to the $1.7 million in overtime cited by the internal auditor] what would happen if we don't adopt this?"

Nan Baker: "It is disturbing to hear that a few salaried employees will not work one hour over 40 unless they are compensated. We are creating a culture of expectations beyond the norm of what is expected of an employee and this is evolving into a larger problem because of what we have created here.

"We are now trying to excuse and explain when perhaps we should be dialing it back in the simplicity of what is salaried and hourly and what do they expect us to pay. The further we get away from that, and explain why this is a better way to go beyond what is normally expected, gets us deeper into the mistrust and understanding of the good work we do here."

Council will present amendments to the handbook at a committee meeting scheduled for Feb. 27.